Complementary Methods for Research in Education 2nd Edition Edited by Richard M. Jaeger _ American Educational Research Association Washington, DC370.78 C737 | Complementary methods for r | "esearch in education | 2nd ed. Central LCW: 10748967 : Po#: 1999301150 B/C: 31259006709666 American Educational Rescarch Assuciation 1230 17th Street, NW ‘Washington, DC 20036-3078 202-223-9485 Copyright © 1988, 1997 by the American Educational Research Association All rights reserved. Requests for permissions to make copies of any part of the work should be mailed to: Permissions, AERA, 1280 17% Swest NW, ‘Washington, DC 20036-3078, ISBN: 0-935302-19-0 (paper) Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 97-070925 Printed in the United States of Americh, Contents it Preface to the Second Edition vii A Note to Instructors ix A Note to Students 1 Section I: The Nature of Disciplined Inquiry in Education 3. Disciplines of Inquiry in Education: A New Overview Let $. Shulman 30 Suggestions for Further Reading 31 _ Study Questions 32 Reading 32 Introduction: Ways of Seeing, Ways of Knowing Lee. Shulman 35 Ways of Secing: An Essay on the History of Compulsory Schooling David B, Tyack 71 Section I: Arts-Based Educational Research 73 Arts-Based Educational Research 95 Suggestions for Further Reading and Reference 99 Study Questions 100 Readings 100 Introduction: Some Examples of Arts-Based Qualitative Research Tom Barone and Eliot Bier 108 Ways of Being at Risk: The Case of Billy Charles Bamett Toms Barone 112 Another Example of Arts-Based Research Tom Barone and Ellis Eimer 113° _B(e)ating the Traces: Reflections on a Sense of Being Indebted to a Former Teacher Phillip W. Jackson 115 — Conclusion ‘Tom Barone and Elior Eisner 127. Section II: Historical Methods in Educational Research 119 Recent Methodological Developments in the History of American Education Carl B. Kaeste 130 - Suggestions for Further Reading 132 Study Quest” -sArts-Based Educational Research Tom Barone Arizona State University Elliot Eisner Stanford University of certain aesthetic qualities or design clements that infuse the d its writing. Although these aesthetic clements are in evidence to will attend to several of the most significant in the literary forms of art. on is not because of logocentrism or a failure of belief in the poten- iness of nonverbal ati ea eae re Seven Features of Arts-Based Educational Inquiry 4. The Creation of a Virtwal Reality fart possesses 2 capacity to pull the person who experiences it into an realy, Objects of ar at, a the aesthetician Suzanne Langer (1987) .” In a work of art such as a dance, she argued, actual Plies such a place, gravy, and muscaar contol deappeat ae the aprehends elements such as “the moving forces of the dance, the appar- ters of power and their emanations, their conflicts and resolutions, lift cline, their rhythmic life (Langer, 1957, p. 6). These ate the virtual real- the “semblance, the composed apparition” that is the dance, They arc nts of a dynamic image that is not physically given but created by the‘Similarly, Iser (1974) has talked about the creation ofa virtual world by alit- «rary author, This virtual world can also be located through the particular phys ical realitcs it evokes. These realities are most apparent in the literary genre 0 social realism. In this kind of literary work especially (although by no exclusively), the author acutely observes and documents the telling details 0 ‘human activity. The examples are innumerable, from the empirical particulars off the heart attack experienced by the fictional character Harry Angstrom in John Updike’s (1990) Rabbit at Rest, to the historical events in the life of ‘Harvey Oswald in Don Delillo’s (1988) Libra, Inside the field of education they can-be identified in the work of Paley (1981, 1986) or in works such Lightfoot’s (1983) The Good High Schoo! and Freedman’s (1990) Victories. The authors of cach of these books locate often subtle but sig But as with the experiences of performing and watching a dance, the focus i! writing and reading a piece of literature is not so much on the individual, par! ticular physical realities as it is on a “ .” a virtual whole! ‘This is true whether the credible vireual world speaks directly to familiar, nearby concerns as it raises questions about them, For example, readers of Kidier’s (1989) Among Schoolchildren or other literary! journalism may realize that they are at the same time vicariously participating in the experiences of a distant fifth-grade classroom and making judgments about’ the rightness of certain of their own educational practices as well as the condi tions that tend to foster them. Kidder’s story may provide a new perspective on’ (among other things) the limits of a teacher's caring and dedication in a hostile institutional serting. ‘The journey away from one’s own lived-world into the realm of the literary | text may thus be likened to that of an astronaut’s voyage from Earth to moon and back again, In each case, the traveler visits a location near enough to a pre- viously experienced object to recognize it but far enough to place it in a reveal ing (sometimes startling) new context. A new set of meanings and valucs sud~ denly adheres to objects and practices previously taken for granted. Back on Earth, the voyager isa changed person. Old ways of secing are negated in favor. of a fresh outlook, perspective, paradigm, and ideology, 2. The Presence of Ambiguity A second feature of texts of arts-based educational an ambiguous quality. Iser (1974) has noted that good, #feaders into the reconstruction of the virtual world of the text by carefully Roned blanks or gaps in the text, These gaps are “the unwritten part of the er 1974, p. 58) that must be filled in by active readers with personal ‘from their own experiences outside the text. Readers cannot merely Fthe text more closely to ascertain greater meaning, but they must, a3 tit: (1983, p. 38) put it, “crcate additional material by a further imaginative aim of the literary artist is not to prompt a single, closed, convergent bbut rather to persuade readers to contribute answers to the dilemmas ‘within the text, In this sense, the literary text exhibits what Maitre (1983) ‘indeterminacy, Ivis this indeterminacy, a state of being indefinite, that literary activity from propaganda and other didacticisms. (1981) uses the term ovelnes to describe the type of writing that some readers to enter into a dialogue with it. Often found in literature ot exclusively in novels, novelness is a characteristic of writing that encour- multiplicity of readings and a variety of interpretations of phenomena uist, 1990, p. 84), Bakhtin contrasts the quality of aovelness with that of es. Epic texts are meant to impart the final word, to shut out other voices, down interpretive options. Epic writing is devoid of gaps to be filled in reader, Epic writing produces the kind of declarative texts (Belsey, 1980) Bim to reduce uncertainty and includes many texts of science and philoso- f Bat even texts that exhibit some other literary characteristics may be declar- ‘and epic, like didactic tales meant to instruct the reader about absolute virmes or final truths, An example of epic educational storytelling is the ed by Berliner (1992). Berliner suggested that staries be waitten in teachers and students explicate and illustrate findings that were detived legitimated through research strategies based on social science. 3. The Use of Expressive Language third characteristic of arts-based inquiry involves the use of certain rhetor- strategies and devices, especially the kind of language used. Writers of liter- E,use language that is metaphorical and evocative. Literary language is to call forth imaginative faculties, inviting the reéder to ill gaps in the "With personal meaning. In literature the language choices are expressive | connotative rather than direct and denotative, They are designed to ce meaning in a roundabout way. Dewey (1934) purit this way: Whereas ts aim to state meaning, artists aim to express meaning. GA szatemeat sets forth the conditions under which the experince ofan objector “Avation may be had, It is a good, that is, effective, statement in the degree in [Which these conditions are stated in such a way that they can be used as directions ich one may arrive at an experience "The poetic as disinet from the prosse, esthetic art as distinct from scientific, expression at distinct from statement, docs something different ftom leading to an perience. It constitutes one. (p. 84) notion reverberates in Langer’s (1942) distinction between representa pmbols 2" “cenational ymbols The former, found in proposiional ourse, point fc intended meanings oftheir referents. That is, the reader7 COMPLEMENTARY METHODS found in Barone’s (1983) literary case study of a North Carolina high sche arts program. Before introducing the character of the art teacher, Fortister, the author describes the Appalachian landscape in which Forris lives and works. The reader is brought to experience certain qualities within setting and within Appalachian life. Then Barone locates these qualities wit Forrister’s teaching. In an extended metaphor, Barone compares nature’s careful, patient shaping of the Appalachian mountains with the art teach effect on many of his students. 4 The Use of Contextualized and Vernacular Language Another characteristic of artistic language is its contextualized nature, (Closely observed descriptions of particular human phenomena are prized not only by novelists, biographers, art critics, and other literary types, but also by ‘writers such as ethnographers who employ some textual design features favored by social scientists. “Thick” literary description grounds the writing in a parte. ular context so-that the complexities adhering to a unique event, character, and/or setting may be adequately rendered. In that regard, arts-based inquirers do not rely primarily on theoretical agot, as scientists and philosophers do, but they depend on nontechnical, everyday, vernacular forms of speech that are more directly associated with lived experi- ences. Speech that is theoretical tends to be abstract, one step removed from the primary qualities confronted in everyday events. Moreover, theory tends to be fashioned from within a preselected framework, one that is identified with a Particular specialized field, or research subcommunity. The grammar and vocabulary of theory are elements of what Toulmin (1953) called the parsii- Pant languages of those who toil in specialized fields, Such language, he argued, is designed quite well for technical purposes: It is highly denotative and con. Yentional language that participants in a particular ficld can use with precision to communicate knowledge and information to other participants who have been initiated into that particular field. . Less constrictive of meaning is language that is not as parochial and special- ized. Typically this sore of language is used in the transdisciplinary of ordinary commerce by laypeople (onlookers, in Toulmin's [1953] term), Such [Basuag is vernacular language, Vernacular forms of speech are more likely to in Tere aaa tad nothing bee to dy he racic is peamantip, His ‘teachers noted thar he had an unusually neat and delicate handwriting for some: ARTS-BASED RESEARCH 77 ut Pha... worked at, usually writing his name over and over apes tee ead le eae ppt mate times, leaping in all directions. The P's would stand out in their grace ce over the other letters; he would even loop the letters stem to give pronounced presence, Sometimes, if he got carried away, his name ‘upward, with curls adoming the other letters, too, as iis name were spaceship about to rocket off the edge of the paper. (p. 62) aie 3 “1 aise the language in this excerpt characteristic of arts-based inquiry? First, Beale: Note the metaphorical allusion to the sense of ower that ‘may derive from his obsession with writing. Second, it is “thickly” of what may be called the “dailiness” of school life. And finally, the iipate in making meaning from the text. 5. The Promotion of Empathy |, expressive, and vernacular language contributes to another t dimension of arts-based educational inquiry—its facility for promot- thic understanding, The ability to understand empathicall isthe a vicariously in another form of life. Within the arts and hurnan- r understanding is the result of an inguirer’s achievement of jectivity. The inquirer’s use of contextualized, expressive, and vernacu- age motivates the readers to reconstruct the subject’ perspective ‘themselves. Second, empathic understanding is the inquirer's ability to mote the reconstruction of that perspective within her or his readers, 1989) emphasized the capacity of literature to produce powerful Fotos SS cai ‘of certain kinds of people—people with whom ult to feel a sense of human solidarity, those looked upon as alicns who Rorty, “outside of the range of ‘us’.” For example, the technocratic ‘of the educational institutions ensures that inhabitants of those ate included in this list of existential foreigners, Following Rorty’s ting vivid depictions of their ways of viewing the world may reduce licnation among schoolpeople and with those outside the school. extualized, expressive, and vernacular language is uniquely qualified to ze those vivid depictions, Literary language allows re-creation ofthe men- osphere, thoughts, feclings, and motivations of the characters in a story, ‘or essay. Through it, readers are brought to vicariously experience ts from a different perspective. 6. Personal Signature of the Rescarcher/Writer Ofcourse, the perspectives of ts various characters are not all that is advanced na piece of literature. The characters are, afterall, only elements within a World that is the creation of a writer (and re-creation of readers). The shapes the realty in accordance with his or her own particular thesis, or 3g insight, wich the text is composed to suggest. The thesis is a per- sive quality in the text that serves to structure the various components of the7% UUMPLEMENTARY METHODS ‘work, This tentative personal statement of the author also serves as a mediat for choosing what to include or exclude from the text. Because a literary thesis is a personal statement arising out of the negotiat between an author and the phenomena under scrutiny, no two will ever uite the same. This is true even when two nonfictional case studies are abo the same person, cultural setting, or event. The reader is encouraged to partie {pate in a variety of perspectives and not to artive ata single, correct version o reality. Each work of arts-based litcrary inquiry, therefore, embodies the uni vision ofits author. In that sense, each displays that author's personal. 7, The Presence of Aesthetic Form ‘The uniqueness of a work of literature is evident in the composition of bo formal and substantive elements that are arranged to further the thesis of thé work. One important formal element is the format, or manner and style off arranging the content of the text. The features of traditional quantita research texts tend to be standardized. They generally include (in this order) statement about the problem and its background, definitions of relevant termi nology, a review of related literature, a description of the methodology and design, a presentation and analysis of the data secured, and a summary and dis cussion of the findings, which includes implications for further research. Ur ARTS-BASED RESEARCH 79 these features, Generally speaking, the more a text exhibits these design ments, the more artistic itis in character, the personalization of textual form. The result has been what Geertz has called genre blurring, a phenomenon that makes it difficult to cate- and label authors and their works. Indeed, we prefer not to encourage ‘of educational research texts into two separate containers beled “artis- cd “scientific” or into corresponding containers labeled “qualitative” and titative.” Instead, we suggest a continuum that ranges from those texts it many artistic characteristics to those that exhibit few. reporting the results of expcriments will reside at one end of this con- Poetic and storied texts will occupy the other, In between can be found rand wondrous spectrum of writings, some primarily quantitative in na- others scientifically qualitative (from grounded theory research to ethnog- hy)yand still others more narrative and personal in style, Our point is that very recently only a relatively small part of that spectrum kad been con- da legitimate field on which an educational inquirer was allowed to play. we hope to expand the playing field, we are focusing here on more ic forms of research. are some kinds of texts located near the arts-based end of the educa- Pinquiry continuum? The two arts-based genres that have gained most inence and acceptance among credentialed educational rescarchers—and ses highlighted here—are educational criticism and narrative storytelling. ‘are not the only literary forms of educational research; others include lit- cease studies, literary history, literary ethnography, life histories, teacher yand student lore, Also, many novels and short stories with themes related ling or education have, over the years, becn written by professional ‘most of whom are not educationist academics. ore exploring the origins of literary-style educational research texts wait- bby educationists, we make three important points. First, because of the ten- to blur genres (Geertz, 1988), itis often difficult, sometimes impossible, sfy particular texts within distinct categories. For example, is Don 's (1983) portrait of a high school principal an educational biography, lit- ¢ study, educational criticism, of all of the above? Second, more writ discourse about arts-based educational research currently exists than do ‘examples of t. This is understandable to us because theoretical justifica- sare often required to legitimate nontraditional research modes. Morcover, ense that the ratio of theoretical justification to exemplar is diminishing as academic educational community gives these modes wider acceptance. as suggested above, many literary-style texts (especially works of fiction) ring into educational phenomena have originated from outside that acad- community. Barone (1992a) has detailed how a particular view of educa- researchers as pro® “ional social scientists has meant the abandonment definitive solution to the dilemma, but a sense that the character has changed of grown asa result of the detailed events, (Because of the ambiguous character of literature mentioned above, the reader is often left to make personal judgments about the rightness of the resolution.) __ By the end of a story—or other kind of arts-based educational inquiry text— its format and contents will scrve to create a new vision of certain educational phenomena, When readers re-create that vision, they may find that new mean? ings are constructed, and old values and outlooks are challenged, even negated. When that occurs, the purposes of art have been served. ‘The Spectrum of Educational Inquiry / ‘The foregoing descriptions constitute a few of the elements of design that adhere to arts-based forms of educational inquiry. There are surely others: Moreover, it should not be assumed that all arts-based inquiry’ ~ill exhibit every | oe40 COMPLEMENTARY METHODS of storytelling about schoolpeople to noneducationists, _ecally popular nov: lists and journalists, With the growth of acceptance by educationiss of re- searcher-artists, the line between academy-based and lay-produced texts about educational matters has begun to fade. Arts-based texts, exhibiting the kind of expressive, vernacular language described above, are often more accessible lay audiences than are technically oriented texts. Educational Criticism (One important kind of educational inquiry that draws its sustenance from arts is called educational criticiom. Educational criticism is the brainchild Elliot Eisner. Over the last two decades Eisner (1976, 1977, 1979, 1991) written extensively on the nature of this arts-based approach to educa research and cvaluation, Several of his students have joined him in this effort elaborating theoretically on the concept of educational criticism and contribut ing critiques of various sorts of educational phenomena (Barone, 19875 Donmoyer, 1980; Flinders, 1995; McCutcheon, 1976; Vallance, 197), »24 Educational criticism demands that the inquirer attend to the subtleties and: uances of educational materials, settings, and events. The educational perceives and appreciates the important qualities of these educational and discloses them through the evocative and expressive language of an critic, Eisner (1988, p. 223) quoted Dewey's (1934, p. 324) description of th aim of art criticiem: “che reeducation of the perception of the work of artA Educational critics tim to reeducate readers’ perception of educational phe nomena, Upon what kinds of educational phenomena does the educational critic focus? They range from school architecture and physical environment, tol the curriculum materials used in classrooms, to the performances of teachers! teaching, to the evaluation of school programs, to critical essays about the lives individual schoolchildren lead. Indeed, no educational phenomenon i, in prin? ciple, outside of the purview of the educational critic. Eisner (1991) has identified and discussed four important dimensions in structure of educational criticism that serve to reeducate readers’ perceptions educational matters. These dimensions are description, interpretation, evalua tion, and shemarict. Of course, educational criticisms are rarely divided into neat segments in accordance with these dimensions; instead one finds these elements interwoven throughout a criticism, with description preceding interpretation: and then giving way again to description, which flows into evaluation and back to interpretation, and so on. Moreover, the dimensions are not totally inde pendent of each other. Because language is involved, for example, pure, evalt= ation-free descriptions or interpretations are impossiblities, Still, naming and describing these dimensions can offer insight into the complex structure of the educational critique. OF the four dimensions of criticism, description is one of the most arts: -telated, Descriptions help readers to visualize what educational phenomena are like, To grant readers access to these phenomena, critics describe in language that is “literary”; that is iti i ARTS-BASED RESHARCH 81 provides a + to a virtual reality and promotes vicarious participation ‘empathic understanding of) a previously alien form cf life. ation performs a different service than that performed by desctip- igidInterpretive text explains meaning. It does so in order to make obvious ort of events and situations, For Eisner (1991), interpretation can eithe use of theories—even social science theories—that put particular ¢8 into meaningful contexts. The purpose of employing theory in educa- siticism, however, is not to predict or control events, It is, rather, to identify the factors that bear upon a particular educational practice, shed light on potential consequences of that practice. structural element of educational criticism is evaluation, the making, eit assessments of the goodness of the educational events and situations and interpreted. Educational critics are not relativists. They see eduuca- {asa value-laden enterprise—some schooling experiences are more growth more educational, than others, A critic, therefore, renders judg- ‘pinions—about the quality of the phenomena under investigation. differs from an opinion in that the latter isa bald, terse, and often statement of personal taste, but the former is suspended within ani ‘of reasons for the crite’s conclusions about matters at hand. dimension in educational criticism is one that is common to al liter- tings. It is the dimension of themasici. A critic, like a playwright, story- jor novelist, will develop a work around a particular controlling insight or s5As described above, a theme will serve as a means for mediating between that are competing for inclusion in an account, Particulars that the central issuc (and subissucs in claborate works) are likely to be {nto the text. The theme is a pervasive quality in the text; it resurfaces ghout, and provides coherence and unity in thé essay, critique, or piece of ,fiction. There is one important distinction to be made between the ‘ofa critique and that of a work of art. In the latter, the theme is never explicit, rather it lurks beneath the surface of the text, subtly guiding the while remaining out of sight. In works of educational criticism, how- the theme is often made explicit, the central insight or insights are pro- and explained in the critical analysis. The theme also contributes to the of generalizing from a work of criticism, a notion to be more fully in a later section of this chapter. cough this description of the important structural elements of educational sm, it becomes clear that this kind of inquiry is not itself art, although it many of the facets of literature discussed carlier in this chapter. because educational criticism was the first form of arts-based inquiry and persistently advanced in the literature on educational research 98 it has served an important legitimating fanction. In addition to m intrinsic worth as a qualitative research approach for disclosing impor- information about educational events and situations, it has opened the to the acceptance of many forms of arts-based inquiry that are even moreARTS-BASED RESEARCH 83 and Walker (1991) as a source of valuable episodes in educational Indeed, stories about the lives of teachers researched and written by ity-based. scholars have burgeoned. Some important examples include Bullough (1989), Jackson (1968), Miller (1990), Ryan (1970), and mura (1986). Schubert and Ayers (1992) also attend to the “local detail ryday life of teaching,” (p. v) or what they prefer to call “teacher lore.” {(1980) was among the first educational researchers to focus on the biogra- Bes of students, Pagano (1992) and Barone (1992b) have each proposed a fictional accounts at the research table; Sellito (1991) and Ross authors of educational novels as dissertations, have already dined at that (1980) has also explored the parallels between storytelling and tof literary journalism. Essays and books by Carol Witherell and Ne! gs (Witherell & Noddings, 1981), Janet Miller (1990), Daniel lin and William Tierney (1993), and Kathy Carter (1993) are among puny that have contributed to the literature on the nature of the personal irofessional knowledge that accumulates as a result of episodes in the sto- es of schoolpeople. Perhaps no educational writers have advanced the cause of educational ling with greater persistence than F. Michacl Connelly and D. Jean | For Clandinin and Connelly (1987; 1988; see also Connelly & 1990), stories represent the structured quality of experience that is by natrative researchers: “Thus we say that people by nature léad st0- ives and tell stories of them, whereas narrative researchers describe such and tell stories of them, write narratives of experience” (Connelly n, 1990, p, 2). The narrative stories that Connelly and Clandinin hibit several of the arts-based features described above, especially the p-scarce, vernacular prose, the perspectival nature of the text, and the pro- of empathic understanding of the lives of educational practitioners, But seminal work, Connelly and Clandinin (1985), like most other narra- did not emphasize the traditional formal qualities of storytelling, g expressive forms of language and the aesthetic story form. deed, for many narrativists the aesthetic format of storytelling is down- d, dismissed, or sacrificed to other concerns, Narrativist authors who col- orate with practitioners in their research often choose to place autobio- faphical content in a theoretical envelope, enfolding it within commentary va critical science or other analytical perspective (e.g., Britzman, 1990; en, 1993). Others, reacting to the form fetishes of modernist literary find outdated, and even dangerous, the notion of a text that lures the into the problematic situation of its characters only to present a tidy res- ‘to the problem, Still others suggest that the format of problem setting, ication, and resolution is a white, Anglo-American characteristic of story ‘& Barylske, 1991). laronc (1995), on the other hand, has noted the value of some educational that—at least mom-ntarily, prior to ultimate analysis by critics and the- deserve their ov _ctual breathing space. Citing major works of litera- » he argues that the story format is best suited to promoting 1 , way aesthetics influence the use of igen langage. ‘Note how the author uses allusion and innuendo ta “Ways of Being at Risk: The Case of Billy Charles Barnett,” ‘Tom Barone, one of the authors of this chapter, The oe bealpaiien ‘by Flot Ener, the chape' co-author. What is it that Barone is up to in this piece, and in what is aisically grounded? These ewo key questions will kes us seco, all cer ates these questions, keepin mind that we take the view research in the socialsciences depends in some degree on artistry for its sue be cessfl completion. Nevertheless, there is gcare of work, which these sele ti nt meanings are, atleast initially, private affairs. They can live in the dark, in orld of our private personal consciousness. They need not be shared. All of hhave fantasies we do not share, images we do not portray, and ideas we do disclose. For ideas to have social value, they need to have a public presence. is required for making the transition between the interior life of lived xperience and the public presence that representation affords. "Writing is a public affair, at least when it's rcad by someone other than the . To write requires a transformation of ideas into a medium whose con- ‘and form can convey those ideas back to both the writer and the reader. sty is present here too. Notc how Barone sets up his piece: He provides a ef glimpsc of Billy Charles, the context in which he lives, and, by way of con- 4 recent encounter with Billy Charles Barnett. Both authors attempt to make vivid heir experience with thei central characters, Even inthis ape of post. modernism, both ate interested in saying what is true about the people and sit. Yatlons about whom they write. Both authors are interested in not only the pat- ficulars of each situation but also in the larger educational issues these 2 pat a fut another way, there isa generalizing tendency within and it is for the reader to decide on its “validity” is Uwefulness, Boh authors hae crested works thet reque, on te on Reo attention to matters of fidelity: thev ask “Did T art ir sinhei” hn 2m ot ~102 COMPLEMENTARY METHODS. 4 tenured university position, will never leave school.” In one short paragraph Barone tells us about Billy Charles’ physical features, the vice principal's expec: tations for the boy's future, and about the distance between Barone’s situation. and that of Billy Charles, Is this material artistically crafted? Try to write a more telling introductory paragraph in four sentences. 4 estions about the meaning of “being at risk,” and, more pointedly, just Ifa reader looks at what Barone docs in his essay and not simply at what b or what that well-worn phrase refers to. These questions help us reexam- says, the author’s strategies emerge quite clearly. Barone begins with a descrip tasic premises and fundamental assumptions. Not much could be more tion of the setting and the major players. He provides this information in the. Ortant as we scek to set an agenda for research that will lead to genuine edu- first paragraph. He then moves to other people's expectations of Billy Charles; reform. these negative features did not conform to the boy. Billy Chatles was not at all what Barone was led to believe about him. Barone’s confession displays candor, and he follows up immediately by providing a vivid example of Billy Charles! mastery “of the fundamentals of a world no longer honored in the dominant culture.” This set-up of dashed expectations and the compelling description of. ‘“jugging,” followed by a “Do you know how to make turtle soup?” provides the introductory theme that will be claborated and made explicit near the end! of the essay; that theme is that Billy Charles knows how to survive in a tough complex world—but it is not the world of schools. He is at risk allright, but it ARTS-BASED RESEARCH 103 of life. His text displays a sensitivity ro tempo, employs metaphor with- gy, exploits image through vivid writing, possesses voice, utilizes plot n interest, and comes to closure with 2 coda that presents both a tough ge to educators and, at the same time, a sense of hope. One comes away student and the teachers and between the student and the administrators. Neither the teachers nor the administrators bother to understand the life that Billy Charles has been forced to lead, which was shaped primarily by an abusive father and a mother who does not appear to have the psychological strength to provide what her son needs. Barone crafts a narrative that keeps the reader on line, The narrative begins with particulars that are embedded in a story that makes them vivid and which ‘gradually opens up to several broad basic educational issues such as: Just is educationally basic? What values do schools promulgate, and are they helpful in advancing the student’s educational development or are they simply instrut ‘mental to vocational adaptation? How can meaning be restored to the experi- ence of schooling, especially perhaps to those students who simply have learned to adapt to external demands they do not really care about? Is being in schoo necessarily a virtue forall students? Might it not just be possible that given the ways in which most schools function, some students would be better served outside of them? In the end, Barone refuses to give up on the promise of schooling. The cur: rent state of schooling, even as problematic as its, is a condition to be addressed, ‘ot an institution to be abandoned. Barone emerges as an optimist, probably not a bad personal state for someone working in the field of education. After all, edu «ation is itself an optimistic enterprise. The potency of Barone’s story depends on his ability to make sense of Billy Charles and his life in and out of school. And it depend ~oon Barone’s ability to transform what he sees, feels, and knows into pros, will convey these